UKH

Well, this is bloody brilliant !!  Three absolute stonkers.  

It sounded great in the hall. I was very impressed by Dalia Stasevska. Finlandia was anything but routine, a hymn to independence from Russia probably helps to have a Ukrainian-born Finn at the helm. 

Haven’t seen all of it yet - our router conked out halfway through Grieg. Paul Lewis is a force of nature! I have several cds of him playing Schubert’s sonatas and I play them again and again.

Tonight’s sounds interesting: Northern Soul. I’m a wee bit miffed that they didn’t give me a guest pass. 

Tonight’s sounds interesting: Northern Soul. I’m a bit miffed they didn’t send me a guest pass. 

Watched the Grieg last night - very intense performance I thought. I was surprised to hear the inter-movement applause. I always find it a distraction if it happens during a concert I’m attending. I also wonder how the soloist deals with it. It must distract them too, and they need to be right in the zone and start the next movement when they are ready.

I was taken to quite a few classical gigs knowing nothing about the music and I used to hate the fact that people didn’t applaud after a break in the music.

Made no sense to me and actually affected my enjoyment of the music. 
Looking forward to catching up with the Northern Soul later today.

I was near the front of the arena on Friday night, and you get used to the people who clap in between movements. It is those who are new to going to concerts, and everyone gradually realises that it is better to wait to the end.

More of an annoyance were the large number of people who didn't try that hard to suppress their coughing. I have had a season ticket to the proms for many years, and I don't remember actually letting a cough out during the music ever. You have a drink of water, or if no water, then gather enough saliva to do the same soothing of your pharynx/larynx (throat). Lots of prommers around me complained about the excess of coughing.

I left after Sibelius' Snofrid, and so missed the Young Person's guide to the Orchestra, and the protests. (I went to a birthday do for my daughter).

I used to adore going to the Proms when I lived in Kensington in the 1970s. I always went to the Prom itself, right at the top of the hall. I remember it took a huge number of people and you hardly ever had to queue. I think it was less than £1, iirc - something like 17/6d or 19/11d ??

Nostalgia’s not what it was, eh, Gordon?

The key is that a piece with several movements is still “a” piece, and the pauses are part of the overall effect of the piece. Just my view.

Agreed

& yet in jazz its common to applaud solos during the piece itself. Why such a big difference ?

Not sure. Possibly due to the more free-flow nature of the Jazz music. Sometimes instrumentalists and vocalists drift in and out of the visual scene whilst a piece is ongoing. Jazz also can involve a lot more improvisation, so it is less about the piece being set within strict bounds, and if you clap at the end, the saxophone player/soloist may not know that you are clapping for him: Whereas with an orchestra the solos have a certain pattern (although certain parts allow for individual interpretation with a cadenza etc) and set length. There is also often a conductor who can enhance the audience clapping, for an individual, by pointing them out and getting them to stand up.... All at the end.

Essentially, though, I do not know.

I've noticed this obsession with applauding every solo in musical theatre and agree that it totally ruins the atmosphere and natural flow of the production.

Silence is more an integral part of classical music in a way that it isn't in jazz, which is a communal thing, as opposed to a concert hall thing.

I can only say that as a complete newcomer to classical music I felt pretty uncomfortable about whether to clap or not and it put me off going to the gigs…

The other option is to record the whole lot on your phone and therefore not have your hands free to clap.
That obviously means that you don't actually get to really see/feel the show live, but not to worry, you can watch a poor rendition of it in the comfort of your home.

Silence between movements is a mid-nineteenth century convention. Beethoven would have expected people to clap between movements and individual movements were even played all over again if they received a big enough response. Some conductors of ‘Historically Informed Practice’ orchestras have even mischievously encouraged present-day audiences to applaud between movements in performances of 18th and early 19th century music. Grieg’s piano concerto was written in 1868, so he would have not been surprised if folk applauded between movements.

The Proms has a large non-specialist audience so clapping between movements is common. I’m sure Paul Lewis was expecting it and I doubt he would have been too bothered by it. 

I’m not fussed by applause. Coughing however…

Everyone including us clapped at Abba Voyage, ridiculous really as we were looking at digital images, fun though.

Clapping between movements seems to have got more common and I do find it irritating.  Conductors and soloists try to indicate by their body language whether it's the end or just a pause between movements, with limited success. I suppose we should be pleased really because it means that people are making the effort to listen to classical music even if they've never been taught the concert-going protocol.

What really drives me nuts is that weird choral speaking from groups in the audience that you seem to get at the Proms. It always seems to be done in a nauseating lah-dee-dah accent.

Are you talking about charities announcement near the beginning of the second half done by the people who always tend to be on the front row of the arena? That is a bit strange.

Is that what it is? Why...

Yes I was going to say, this is a (fairly) modern phenomenon that, in my opinion, people get too hung up upon. If people want to applaud, let them applaud. Classical music has enough of a problem with elitism as it is.

Audiences at Indian classical music concerts also clap after a particularly excellent solo or duet, I suspect for similar reasons to those you suggest here. 

No smartphones chiming - or are they confiscated ?!